Embodiment and How to Practice It
Photo by Joshua Abner
As you begin reading this sentence, let’s briefly check in with your body. Can you feel your sit bones touching the chair you are sitting on? What is the temperature of your hands right now? Are you aware of any tension in your chest or shoulders? What are your fingertips touching? What are your ears hearing?
Go ahead and take a moment to answer the above questions and see what comes up.
What you just did was practice embodiment - a process where you inhabit the body you live in.
There is a reason the dictionary defines embodiment as the act of embodying or a state of being embodied. It is a process and a state, which means it is natural for us to oscillate in and out of it. It is not a destination that we reach and remain in. It is more accurately described as the ebb and flow of the tide: tap into embodiment, tap out of it so our brain can focus on rote procedural things that help us get things done and live our every day lives.
We live in a culture and a society that values brains over bodies. We are encouraged to practice mind over matter and to leave the body behind. The roots of these ideologies can be traced back as far as Decartes - “I think therefore I am” - and as recent as the Protestant ethic that formed this country and many of its ideals, ones we are still suffering from today.
Separating the mind from the body creates a divide that turns full bodied humans into floating heads, soaring through life by denying our bodies’ needs, wants and the soft whispers it desperately asks us to hear.
Our bodies learn to feel unheard, unseen, invisible. They tolerate the lack of rest and recharge, the go-go-go of our endless productivity drive with the hope that just around the corner there will be relief. But when that relief doesn’t manifest, our bodies begin to get louder so that we can finally pay attention.
Have you ever wondered why as soon as you are done with a school semester or a big work project, you suddenly come down with a cold? This is a good example of a body pushed to its limits taking charge by forcing you to rest by any means necessary.
Our bodies are not our enemies; they are our most devoted allies.
Our society constantly pushes us toward detachment from our bodies by focusing on all the things that are supposedly wrong with them while providing an array of “simple” quick fixes. But keeping the mind and body divided only benefits companies that line their pockets with the fabric of our self-doubt.
Our bodies beckon us to experience the world in its fullest, inviting us into freedom, pleasure and joy.
Embodiment is a way to return to the body, a path to come home to ourselves. It is also a protest and a demand for change, a reclaiming of something taken by oppressive structures that use the mind-body divide as means of social control.
In a culture designed to keep us in our heads, embodiment is nothing short of revolutionary.
How do we practice embodiment?
Any time you engage your body is an opportunity to practice embodiment. When you wash your hands, you can notice the temperature of the water, how it feels when it rolls over your hands, how the soap smells, how your skin feels afterward. When you type on your keyboard, you can notice the pressure of the keys, the sound the keyboard makes, how you are holding your hands while typing.
The opportunities for embodiment are plentiful. The most important step is to simply begin.
“and i said to my body. softly. ‘i want to be your friend.’
it took a long breath and replied ‘i have been waiting my whole life for this.’”- Nayyirah Waheed
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